ABSTRACT
Dry, thin-lm bone marrow smears derived from aspiration biopsies of hemopoietic (red) bone marrow stained with one of the Romanowsky-type dyes (e.g., Wright’s stain) have proven to be inordinately useful in the cytologic analysis of hemopoietic bone marrow. The staining of dry lm smears of blood and bone marrow with a Romanowsky-type mixture, that is, eosin, methylene blue, and oxidation products of the latter dye generically termed azure stain, all dissolved in methyl alcohol has been a standard practice for more than a century and continues to remain as the single, universally accepted, most useful technique of visualizing erythrocytes and normoblasts (as well as immature and mature leukocytes) under bright eld microscopy. The various Romanowsky stains are typically identied by an investigator’s name who espoused certain techniques in the production of the stain that enhanced its effectiveness, predictability, and particularly the process employed in the oxidation (“polychroming”) of a portion of the methylene blue. The latter step generates additional new dye products such as methylene azure that thereby add an additional color(s) to the dye mixture. Thus, Wright, Giemsa, Leishman, Jenner, May-Grunwald, and their combinations are all recognized Romanowsky stains. In all instances regardless of which Romanowsky-type stain, mixture thereof, or laboratory modication is enlisted, when an ideal result is obtained in staining a blood/ marrow smear/imprint the end products of all approaches are comparable.
